Because of Christ: Memoirs of a Lutheran Theologian

by Carl E. Braaten

Overview

Carl Braaten's memoirs tell the story of his life as a theologian, from his early years as a missionary kid in Madagascar to his years of study at the universities of Paris, Harvard, Heidelberg, and Oxford to his decades of teaching. Throughout the book, he delves into the many theological movements, controversies, and personalities that shaped his thinking and writing. Braaten's fight for the faith is reflected in his theological work―spoken and written―that tangles with the "isms" of the surrounding culture of American religion. Because of Christ is more than simply a biography; it is a chronicle of the chief theological conflicts of the twentieth century that put the integrity of the gospel to the test.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781725240704
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	10/11/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Carl E. Braaten is one of the leading theologians in American Lutheranism. He taught Systematic Theology for a generation at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and was founding editor of the popular theological journal Dialog. He has written or edited many foundational works in Lutheran theology, among them is a two-volume Christian Dogmatics (1985) edited with Robert Jenson, and Justification: The Article by Which the Church Stands or Falls (1990). For thirteen years Braaten has been director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology and editor of its journal, Pro Ecclesia.
Carl Edward Braaten is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He served as a parish pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Messiah in Minneapolis from 1958-1961. From 1961-1991 Braaten served as a professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. In 1992 he together with Robert W. Jenson founded the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology in Northfield, Minnesota. For fifteen years he served as the executive director of the Center, an ecumenical organization whose mission is to cultivate faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the churches, and also as the editor-in-chief of Pro Ecclesia, a journal of theology published by the Center.
Braaten has authored and edited over fifty theological books, including Principles of Lutheran Theology (Fortress Press, 1983), The Future of God: The Revolutionary Dynamics of Hope (Harper&Row, Publishers, 1969), Mother Church: Ecclesiology and Ecumenism (Fortress Press, 1998), Because of Christ: Memoirs of a Lutheran Theologian (Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), and Who Is Jesus? Disputed Questions and Answers (Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2011), as well as hundreds of articles and editorials in various academic journals.
Braaten was born on January 3, 1929 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He grew up on the island of Madagascar where his parents served as missionaries of the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America. He graduated from Augustana Academy, a Lutheran high school in Canton, South Dakota. He received degrees from St. Olaf College (B.A.), Luther Seminary (M. Div.), and Harvard University Divinity School (Th.D.). In 1951 he was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Paris (Sorbonne), in 1957 a doctoral student at the University of Heidelberg where he wrote his dissertation, and in 1967 a Guggenheim Fellow at Oxford University.
In 1974 he spent a sabbatical making a worldwide lecture tour of various colleges and seminaries in Japan, China, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. This tour resulted in a book on the universal mission of the church entitled, The Flaming Center (Fortress Press, 1977).

Table of Contents

Preface vii

1 Growing Up in Madagascar 1930-1946 1

2 Augustana Academy and St. Olaf College 1946-1951 9

3 The University of Paris-Sorbonne 1951-1952 14

4 Luther Seminary 1952-1955 18

5 Harvard Divinity School 1955-1957 29

6 The University of Heidelberg 1957-1958 35

7 Lutheran Church of the Messiah and Luther Seminary 1958-1961 44

8 Lutheran School of Theology, Maywood Campus 1961-1967 56

9 Mansfield College - Oxford University 1967-1968 73

10 Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago 1968-1991 83

11 The Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology 1991-2005 133

12 Postretirement Years: Sun City West, Arizona 2005-2008 155

Appendix: Bibliography of the Publications of Carl E. Braaten 1962-2009 180

Index 203